Visibility
by JoIsBishMyoga
Summary: Some years after Greed Island, Gon and Killua and a tropical island. This is as close to 'typical tourist-in-paradise' as a Zoldyck's going to get. Incomplete.


Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter is property of Yoshihiro Togashi and various publishing and animation studios.

Warnings: Slashiness. Cuteness. Plotless drabble. Takes place about 3 years after the end of HxH: Greed Island Final, which is as much as I've been able to get, so Gon and Killua are about 16.

Just to repeat, HOMOSEXUALITY. Blatant but low-level. And they are legal, not that underage kids don't do stuff with each other.

Visibility

On the 5th of January in the northern tropics, the wind puffs in soft gusts across the sea, unhindered by land for thousands of miles. It is the mild season, with no chance of hurricanes or stifling heat.

Tiny islands of coral and volcanic rock dot the wide expanse of ocean, many of them deceptively lush: steep little specks of forest and underbrush, birds and lizards, sand and rocks, and very, very little freshwater. Nevertheless, several of the larger islands bear the scars of human habitation, in ruins of stone and mudbrick, tangles of imported vegetables gone to seed, and packs of wild dogs, feral cats, and less desirable beasts.

Despite this, Killua only needs a tropical drink in his hand to complete his calculated image of tourist-in-paradise. Except he suspects even teenage tourists might not doze off in trees... but he's not quite sure. He does, however, know that tourists of any age (A) lounge around in baggy shorts and tank tops, if they plan to actually go anyplace besides the pool, (B) wear sunglasses, and, most importantly, (C) doze off with their heads firmly pillowed in their girlfriend's lap whenever possible, or vice versa.

Though Gon is a bit misendowed in that department.

But lounging in a tree on a deserted tropical island, sucking on a lollipop, with his head in Gon's lap as an airship lands and begins disgorging passengers... this is perhaps as close to 'typical tourist in paradise' as a Zoldyck is going to get.

Gon makes a soft, happy sound, shifting to shade his eyes from the sun. "Ah, there are so many!" he crows, poking Killua in the shoulder. "They must be really good this year, ne, ne?"

Killua shrugs, mumbling around his dwindling lump of candy. "Or the exam's been too easy."

Gon pokes him again. "Pessimist."

"Ooh, using the big words now?"

His eyes don't have to be open to know Gon has just stuck his tongue out at him. Killua stifles his suggestive response, just this once, and lets Gon turn back to eyeing up the wannabes. A subtle shift, _Gyo_, and when Gon's voice resumes it's softer, slightly awed. "_Kakkoi_..."

Of course there would be nen users among the candidates. No doubt at least one or two have noticed Gon and Killua in their tree. Now Killua lets his head fall to the side, eyes opening lazily to see what Gon has.

There really are a lot left, even after two rounds of culling. Nearly a hundred people mill about in the clearing below. Roughly half are burly, macho men... either athletic or just plain beefy... while the rest are a mix of scrawny thief-types, tricksters, and nondescript young people, though Killua thinks he sees a fat woman and a couple of older teens. He certainly sees old Tompa, doubtless still crushing rookies, saving the Hunters the trouble; and the what's-their-name brothers.

Gon twitches under Killua's head impatiently. Killua taps his knee: they've got another minute to go. Gon shifts away, and Killua sticks his arm... with watch... under Gon's nose. The seconds tick away, the hand clicking inaudibly in its specially-made titanium casing.

Three. Killua drops his arm away.

Two. He sits up.

One. A gong crashes, and before the first echo hits ears Gon's landed in the clearing.

"Hi!" he all but shouts. The nearest candidates leap away, a few nearly tripping in shock. Gon's beaming at the crowd, a hand raised in greeting as Killua lands neatly just three steps behind and to the left of him. "Welcome to Round Three of the Hunter exams! I'm Gon, and this," he jabs a thumb over his shoulder, not needing to look to see where Killua is (one of these days Killua should stand someplace unpredictable, just to mess with Gon's mind), "is Killua."

The candidates gape. Killua can't help but notice the youngest candidate this year is still a couple years older than he and Gon are, unless there are some brats way in the back that he can't see past everybody else. He files the factoid away and takes up his part of the spiel. "We're your examiners."

"_YOU!"_ The shout comes from all sides. Neither Killua's expression nor Gon's changes.

"Yup!" Gon chirps. "And this exam is going to be..." he stabs a finger in the air, "Hide and Go Seek!"

Mass faceplant. Then, the predictable: a smartass in the crowd shoves forward to loom over Gon. "Ha ha. Okay, kid, you had your fun. Now take us to the _real_ examiners, before we lose patience, 'kay?" Patronizing smile.

Killua really _hates_ patronizing smiles. But Gon moreso hates being considered a liar. His face snaps into seriousness. Killua has dubbed the expression 'The Stare of Honest DOOM', and it never fails to make lesser beings cringe away. "We are the examiners," Gon states flatly.

They step forward, the crowd edging back, making a path for them as they cross the clearing. A table has been placed in the back, a cloth covering items on it from view, and it is before this table that they face the crowd once more. Gon casts his Stare of Earnest Doom (slightly less intimidating than 'The Stareof Honest DOOM') across the candidates. "And this test really _is_ Hide and Go Seek."

Killua whips the cloth from the table, letting it fall to the ground, revealing neat rows of cameras. "You'll be hunting us for this test. To pass, get a picture of one of us, any range, any angle, as long as there's enough seen to be recognizable. Each camera is digital, so you can take an unlimited number of pictures, just delete the unuseable ones. Each camera will also be coded to your badge, so don't bother trying to steal someone else's."

"The test will take a week," Gon adds. "At the end of it, those people with a picture of one of us on their camera pass." Gesturing broadly at the surroundings, Gon concludes, "We'll be somewhere on the island. Ja ne!"

And with that, Gon jumps away, Killua slides free of four nen tracers and leaps into the trees, and they dart apart to the sounds of cursing behind them.

SCENEBREAK-

Technically, the rules of the game state that a person is to secrete themselves into a place that is so unaccessible, so out-of-the-way, so well-concealed, that no one can find them. And that is the rational thing to do, the sensible way to play the game.

But that's not the right way. Gon knows the golden rule of being lost, the advice adults give to children and each other: _stay put._ In big words, people find things by the process of elimination.

In small words, it's far harder to find a moving target.

So he sucks his aura _In_, ha ha, hiding from the scattering of nen users, zigzagging through the trees and over the hard-packed turf towards the interior of the island. Hisoka had once compared him to a wild animal. He follows the meandering paths made by the wild dogs and boars, skirting scent marks and droppings, skittering to other paths when those and the gouges made by tusks on the trees and in the dirt get too fresh. He stays on the firmest dirt and rock, bootprints and footprints too easy of a test.

The only freshwater on this island, save for rain, comes from a single wellspring, seeping from a cleft halfway up the side of a mountain. The ruins of the city center on this point and spread downhill along the resulting stream, easily visible from the air... were the candidates paying attention when they landed. (Of course, there are some basin-like stones scattered at random points over the island... some natural, most not. But rain is scarce this time of year, and only the deepest of the basins hold any wet at all, and most of that is stagnant muck even the pigs won't bathe in.)

Gon has two empty canteens in his pack, and three full ones hidden elsewhere. Hunters don't get to play fair. The opponent is almost invariably better-prepared, stronger, and more familiar with the territory.

He kneels at the freshest part of the wellspring, the small pool itself, holding his canteen under the outpouring from a crumbling marble fountain. The carvings are illegible, but the piece itself is so massive and so well-worked, it could only have been sacred to the vanished people of the island.

A flash of old memory, gentle reverence in serious blue eyes...

Gon caps the first canteen and bows his head to the old stone.

No nen flares up, but Gon knows the presence behind him without looking. "He would have liked this, once," he says, setting his second canteen into the cold stream of water.

"Once," Killua agrees.

Taking Killua's canteens, Gon tucks them in with his own under the running water. Kurapica can't afford to be human, save for the thin sliver Senritsu's music holds captive for the end, and what little Gon and Killua's memories can preserve.

Water overflows the canteens, and Killua bows to the sacred spring in memory.

He doesn't, however, pause before murmuring, "We're taking too long."

Gon nods, taking, drying, and tugging the canteens over his shoulders in a single fluid movement, dropping Killua's around the other boy's neck. A quick brush of lips to lips, and he pulls away. "See you around?"

"Later."

Before the last syllable echoes through the fountain square, the pair are gone in opposite directions.


End file.
